Fahd's Blog Articles.

Another leadership retreat in the books! We had a wonderful time working with the Hoppier team, it’s always great to see how team dynamics develop and change when we pull the team members into unfamiliar territory and activities. It’s especially important when you further analyze why/how the team interacts and what we can do to improve the core elements like trust.

I had the absolute pleasure of taking the Ottawa General Contractors’ team on a leadership camp/retreat, and although this was a short retreat, it was wonderful to see everyone grow together as the different elements of the camp were pieced together.

As always, we’ve made a short video documenting the experience and I hope you enjoy!

What makes a great leader? Confidence? Vision? Perhaps emotional intelligence? Yes, all of these things are essential parts of being a leader but the cornerstone of it all is being trustworthy.

However it’s not only about being trustworthy, but being seen as trustworthy. This is a lot harder to do within work-teams because of some of the restriction of being in the same environment day in and day out.

One of the things I love about our retreats for teams is that pulling people out into unfamiliar environments and tasks change the dynamic significantly and can lead to much higher levels of trust.

The third and final installment of my trip to the EPIC Conference! I’ve gained such a wealth of knowledge from all the fantastic speakers there. I’m very excited to start digesting everything I learned and hopefully be able to forward that over to all of you.

We all know that continuous learning is essential, but what are we doing about it?

Is it enough to say I’m learning on the job? I’m learning as I go? I’m learning from my mistakes?

It takes the intentional commitment to learning and improving that allows leaders to succeed. For anyone to achieve above average results, they must be avid learners.

As a Canadian university student, I recall paying approximately $7000 a year for my education. I found my university degree to be very intellectually stimulating and loved the time I spent at Carleton University. Yet, I found that many friends that finished university and took on full-time jobs didn’t engage in self-learning. They relied on the training provided by their place of employment to be enough.

When I graduated from university, I made a promise to myself that I would continue to invest the same amount of money I did in self-learning every year for the rest of my life.

To this day, I spend at least $7000 a year in self-education from attending conferences, seminars, online courses, books or hiring coaches to help me achieve that next level.

I was able to afford to invest in myself when I was a broke-ass student, why would I pretend that I can’t afford it now?

That’s why i’m attending events like the EPIC Conference, to drive my growth through self-learning. Though it is expensive, the long term value absolutely drives it home for me.

“The best way to spread an idea is to recreate in someone else’s mind the conditions that created it in yours in the first place” – Tamsen Webster.

Tamsen Webster – the “Idea whisperer” – takes us on a thrilling ride of how to create permanent change in others by utilizing the story of an idea at the 2019 EPIC Community.

Webster poses the question that we likely all struggle with, “How can we get others to take a particular action?” I found this compelling as the fundamental goal of a leader is to get people to take action – so how can you effectively do this?

We all know this too well when you ask a child to do something, “eat your vegetables” and their immediate response is, “no!”. I mean as a grown-ass adult I still struggle with this. Whenever anyone directly tells me what to do, I have a physiological reaction, where I cannot oblige to what they want me to do…. Some might call this stubbornness haha.

Webster explains this as a psychological reactant, a cognitive trap that we all fall into based on childhood experiences. If we lead with the thing we want them to do, we’ll most likely get a no.

Instead, Webster shares a critical insight that, what we see, drives what we do.

So if we can change what they see, we can change what they do.

She demonstrates how we can’t make people change, but we can create the condition for change. To do this we must build the story of your idea, that can provide a narrative and lead them to where you want.

Webster shares the five critical elements of building out the “Red Thread” of your idea.

1) Goal

2) Problem

3) Truth

4) Change

5) Action

I recently utilized Webster’s framework for a 10-minute Keynote address at the Boys and Girls Clubs of Ottawa 10th Annual Fundraising Breakfast, where our goal was to raise $500,000.

1) The Goal: all great stories start with a quest. It is the question that needs answering. Start with their language, what is their goal. What does your client want to accomplish?

2) The Problem: the obstacle in the way of your client’s journey. This is usually a perspective problem. This is also where you introduce an additional pain that they didn’t even know they had – perhaps a pair of concepts that sit at the edge of each other. You want to make the problem impossible to ignore.

3) The Truth: a fact that you cannot unhear. A universal truth that your client fundamentally agrees on attached to the new idea you’re presenting.

4) The Change: this is the change, the new behaviour or action that one needs to take to achieve get past the above problem, and achieve the new truth.

5) The Action: this is usually your call to action, the answer to the question “How do I do it?”

Webster graciously offers a workshop and video on how to best utilize this on her website: tamsenwebster.com

What is so vital to understand is that as leaders ultimately our one objective is to get people to rise to the occasion and take action. So we must learn about the conditions we have to create to get people to take action and make a permanent change. Otherwise, we’re stuck spinning our wheels repeating the same demands and getting no results.

What idea are you going to now put into story form utilizing the Red Thread?

“People used to vote with their wallet. Now they vote with their time. The only question is, are you relevant enough, valuable enough, timely enough, and entertaining enough to capture their attention and trust? – Ron Tite

Ron Tite was both inspiring and hilarious with the insights he shared on how you can build personal and organizational momentum in a busy world.

Tite kept his message quite tight. (See what I did there?)

You need three words Tite explains, Think, Do, Say. Great leaders and organizations are in alignment between what they Think, Do and Say.

The reality of today’s consumer is that they have no idea whom to trust or where to look.

You all have a million things you want to pursue, and we’re unsure how to pursue these million things.

So what do you do? You bring it back to the basics, Tite insists.

Look at how you think, what you believe, is it in alignment with what you do? Is what you’re doing in alignment with what you say in your marketing messages? If it’s not, this contradiction creates the integrity gap. An example of this is the Pepsi Co commercial that aired during troubled times in America during the Black Lives Matter movement.

THINK: You must get past defining yourself by your products or services. Or even by your far too wordy mission and vision statements that no one cares about. We have to elevate the conversation. What do you fundamentally believe?

I believe in the power of education, and unlocking human potential. Moreover, my life mission is to empower a billion young leaders into solving the worlds biggest problems.

DO: Repeatable behaviour based on what you believe. Proactively solve the problem you believe in. “Nobody cares about you; just shut up and solve my problem.”

SAY: Now it’s time to talk about and market the actions you’ve taken about what you believe. The problem is that many people start with their marketing messages. They try to expedite the processes or benefit from “purpose-driven marketing,” which always ends in a disaster because of the inherent integrity gap.

As leaders, there’s nothing more important than the integrity and trust you hold with your team. This integrity takes years to build through consistent alignment between Think-Do-Say, and a slip up can cause considerable damage to the trust of your organization.

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Meet Fahd Alhattab

Fahd Alhattab has built a reputable career in leadership development, motivational speaking, and creative fundraising. With a fun demeanour and a background in youth work, Fahd entertains and engages the audience, and leaves them feeling empowered to embrace everyday acts of compassionate leadership.